Statistics

One day long ago Jen F. was mean. But don't worry now she's better and she's willing to tell you how mean she was. And it's actually a pretty great story.

One evening when I was in college some friends and I were sitting around in my dorm room, getting ready to head out to go to a party, when the phone rang. Caller ID showed that it was yet another telemarketer. Our number had been inundated with sales calls, and I was getting sick of it. We had some time to kill before we needed to leave, so I decided to have some fun with the telemarketer for my friends' amusement.

I motioned for everyone to get quiet, clicked the speakerphone button, and answered the call.

Man's brutal inhumanity to man for profit is spotlighted by Wesley Smith in Secondhand Smoke Hey, once you don't accept "human exceptionalism" all sorts of evil is loosed:

We are creating a world of “outsourced ethics” (to quote my pal William Hurlbut), in which the rich West engages in or winks at corrupt or unethical behavior in poor countries toward the end of exploiting human bodies–living and dead–for profit. Examples discussed here at SHS previously are organ buying in India, Philippines, and China, paying women to get pregnant and abort in the Ukraine for fetal stem cells, unethical medical experimentation on poor women in Africa, etc. Now a Spiegel report details a thriving market in body parts imported to the West from Ukraine.

A Roman Catholic bishop criticized for his autocratic management style announced Monday that he is stepping down for health reasons, saying that tension within the diocese about his ideas and governance style led to insomnia and crippling physical fatigue.

Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino, 63, had been leading the northeastern Pennsylvania diocese since 2003 and will be leaving more than a decade before the usual retirement age of 75.

What's a "God Panel" anyway? The always excellent Jay Anderson has the answer. And you're probably not going to like it:

"Death Panels", anyone?

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama, is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving. Dr. Emanuel is part of a school of thought that redefines a physician’s duty, insisting that it includes working for the greater good of society instead of focusing only on a patient’s needs. Many physicians find that view dangerous, and most Americans are likely to agree.

Of course, there's no way to convince someone there is a God if they're not willing to listen. RS McCain has a link to an interesting story written by a former atheist concerning evidence of God that many people might overlook.

Amazing what turns up in the algorithms: Does God exist? Here are six straight-forward reasons to believe that God is really there. Completely random coincidence . . .

The Associated Press released excerpts from Senator Kennedy's letter to Pope Benedict and Pope Benedict's response to the Far Left pro-abortion senator.Please note: This AP release only includes excerpts and is not the full correspondence:

Excerpts of the letter from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy that President Barack Obama delivered to Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year and an account of the pope's response, as read by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington:

If that last blog post wasn't stomach-turning enough for you, brace yourselves: Doug Kmiec has decided to weigh in on the death of Senator Kennedy. And I've decided to fisk some of it. (I'd fisk the whole thing, but my comments would get wearisomely repetitive, like the original article). My remarks are in red:For too long in America, people of good will sharing the Catholic faith have been divided [into Catholics who believe everything in the Catechism, and Catholics who dissent from parts of it. That's the divide that matters; if we'd all quit being cafeteria Catholics on issues like abortion or torture and start being Catechism Catholics, things would improve]. We have been told, or we have convinced ourselves, that unless there is perfect agreement on every issue, there can be no friendship [Who's talking about friendship? I can be friendly toward pro-abort Catholic quislings. But I don't have to accept their quislingism, do I?]. This is mistaken.

Opinionated Catholic brought my attention to this story which is an update on the was he or wasn't he excommunicated story we ran on Fr. Bourgeois recently:

Journalists can be sometimes sloppy about how they use terms like “evangelical” or “born-again.” But they also face a real problem — how to convey the basics of a situation accurately in very limited space. And when covering a doctrinal dispute, or a controversial denominational figure, it’s very tricky to give your readers all the information they need without getting into dangerous territory.

So how do you talk about Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois, longtime critic of U.S. activities in Latin America, and activist for ordaining Roman Catholic women? That’s part of the conundrum that probably confronted Boston Globe religion writer Michael Paulson when writing about Bourgeois, who has participated in a women’s ordination ritual, and his speech last week at a United Church of Christ church in Weston, MA. Here’s a link to Mollie’s post from last November, around the time that the Vatican (according to a lawyer for Bourgeois) threatened him with excommunication if he didn’t recant his public support and belief in women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church.

I know many people who would consider homeschooling but have doubts about their own abilities. Ebeth answers your fears:

We've had a sick baby around here these days; no time for the keyboard or screen. I saw this list of doubts and fears at Conversion Diary late Sunday and I've been thinking about them while I rock and rock and rock my sweet, sweaty baby. She's sleeping. I think I'll take a stab at this.

"I worry about getting physically and mentally overwhelmed -- I find motherhood hard enough without the responsibility of being primary educator of my children. Is there any way to both homeschool and make sure I get the breaks that I need?"Hmmm...I'm a 15-year veteran of homeschooling and I'm still worrying about getting mentally and physically overwhelmed. Heck, let's be honest, right now I AM mentally and physically overwhelmed. But you know what? Right now, it's August.

Under the Obama health care plan, virtually every American will eventually be forced into a plan that mandates abortion by requiring individuals to buy insurance that meets minimum benefits standards determined by unelected government bureaucrats. If the law does not clearly state that abortion is excluded, abortion automatically becomes a minimum required benefit.Americans don't support this and they don't support paying for abortions. The proposed health care bill will amount to a bailout for the abortion industry, which is swimming in profits already. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize this controversial industry.

The quotes in this post by Pundette about people who work at abortion clinics realizing that it's a baby are heartbreaking.

The BlogProf who has written a must-read on the greatest argument against abortion. He quotes some wrenching accounts from abortionists who at some point had to face the reality that was in front of their eyes: the dead baby. He notes that the abortion industry is working diligently to keep that reality, in the form of an ultra-sound image, from the eyes of mothers who would destroy their children:

New federal regulations allow gruesome pictures to be shown to dissuade smoking. The experts say that the more gruesome the photos, the more effective they are. But we're still not allowed to show gruesome pictures of abortion. Hmmm...wonder why?

Would a gruesome picture of a cancer-ravaged mouth with rotting teeth make you think twice about buying a pack of cigarettes?

That’s the goal of new federal regulations expected to go into effect within three years. The rules will require tobacco companies to cover at least half of the front and back of packages with graphic — and possibly gruesome — images illustrating the dangers of smoking.

Disgusting. Sometimes I focus so extensively on fighting the ideology of abortion that I forget that abortion is protected and defended because it's a multi-million dollar industry:

This new documentary, "Bloodmoney," exposes in detail how the abortion industry extremists systematically "had a plan that sold abortion, and it was called 'sex education.' [We would] break down their natural modesty, separate them from their parents and values and become the sex experts in their lives so they would turn to us. When we could give them a logos birth control pill they would get pregnant on it or on a defective condom. . . ."

Liberal lunacy and Maddow's opinion on the Pope in one post. Can't beat that:

Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer found wacky leftist radio host Stephanie Miller taking her worship of MSNBC to ridiculous levels, even for a comedian who's (half?) joking:

I was on Ed Schultz yesterday, as a liberal, going to MSNBC – like visiting the Vatican...Hung out with Rachel Maddow for a while. I would have licked Keith Olbermann’s chair again, but he doesn’t let me into his studio...[Whispers about Maddow] She is awesome!

Pro-choicers don't really like some choices, I guess. Jill Stanek has the story:

On August 19 People magazine published Kourtney Kardashian's lengthy explanation why she chose not to abort her unplanned baby. Kardashian stars with her sisters Kim and Khloe and other family members on E!'s Keeping up with the Kardashians. Here's what she told People:

... Kardashian's unplanned pregnancy forced the shocked reality TV star to make one of the most difficult decisions in her life: Would she have the baby or terminate the pregnancy?

One Jerusalem has information from sources claiming Obama is planning an ambush on Israel at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in September:

Several sources have informed One Jerusalem that the Obama Administration is planning to significantly step up the pressure on Israel by announcing a comprehensive plan for Israel and the Palestinians at the opening of the United Nations General in September.

This is a tricky question. Should Ted Kennedy receive a Catholic funeral? It's not up to me and as I'm not sure I even know the criteria used to decide such things. But I'm sure some of our readers know a lot more. I'll be interested:

In 1979, Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York denied a funeral Mass to slain mafia boss Carmine Galante after he was gunned down at an outdoor cafe. Cooke told the press:

"The Archdiocese of New York cannot permit a public celebration of a funeral liturgy for the late Carmine Galante. We extend our sympathy to his family, but we are not able to grant liturgical services in the church because of the scandal that would ensue."

This is depressing reading in that it shows the history of how Notre Dame started down the road away from the Church. I still hope and pray Notre Dame is guided back to fidelity. The sight of all those students praying at the Grotto during President Obama's speech there assures me that there is still much good at Notre Dame. But some in the administration are still leading the school in the wrong direction:

In the July-August 2009 issue of New Oxford Review, Michael V. McIntire, a 1957 graduate of Notre Dame and former Associate Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, writes:

In the early 1960s, promotion of the eugenics agenda of John D. Rockefeller III and Planned Parenthood was being frustrated by the Church's stubborn moral opposition to contraception. Rockefeller and Planned Parenthood considered public acceptance of contraception to be the key to public acceptance of eugenics by abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation, and they actively sought a prominent Catholic voice to assist them in successfully opposing the strength of the Church's teaching on that issue. Notre Dame became their willing accomplice in this quest.

When I watch something John Stossel does I often think that I wish everyone could see this and then I wonder how he doesn't get fired. So check out this video of Legal Insurrection. It's devastating to the cause of socialized medicine...Continue reading>>>

In Australia last week, the Supreme Court ruled that 49 year old quadriplegic Christian Rossiter has the “right to die” if he so wishes. The problem is Rossiter is not going to just die, he’s going to starve himself to death by refusing to be nourished with food and fluids through a feeding tube.

What is most heart-breaking about this story, of course, is the fact that this man thinks that his life has little to no value because of his physical limitations.

How many Catholics really don't understand what's at stake here? Wait. Don't tell me. I'd probably just get very sad and it would ruin my whole day.

President Obama has resorted to an incredibly infantile phrase—”wee-weed up”—to degrade his "health care reform" detractors. While the White House has now explained this remark as the president describing opponents of his health care debacle as agitated bed wetters, the truth is sobering—not silly. In fact, Obama’s opponents are perhaps a bit more honest than he would like; thus, the insults.

Give credit to Chris Wallace. If only all the media did stuff like this:

Here is video of Assistant Sec. of Veteran's Affairs Tammy Duckworth on Fox News Sunday being challenged by Chris Wallace about the booklet used by the Veteran's Administration to do "end of life counseling" with elderly or ill veterans about whether their "life is worth living." Critics have referred to it as a "Death Book for Veterans."

I know I'm supposed to be charitable. And I know that anyone could convert and turn things around. All I'm saying is that if there's no 180 degree turn in this guy's life they may have to dig a new room deeper in Hell to find the right place for this guy. I'm not judging. I'm just saying:

If I recall correctly from my high school preparatory seminary, there are venial sinners and mortal sinners, but we might have to find a third category for Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez, 39. He was convicted of stealing a 300-year-old painting of the Virgin Mary to pay for an abortion for a teenage girl whom he is accused of raping. That should cover the bases for a one-way ticket to the hot zone..

There’s nothing like a summer vacation to rekindle a romance. So maybe a week on Martha’s Vineyard can bring back some of the magic between the Obama administration and the media.

Before White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left town, he tried to clarify President Barack Obama’s comment that “everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.” Gibbs explained to reporters that what the president meant was that they were a bunch of bed wetters who made too much out of the implosion of the White House health care strategy.

Gibbs has grown more sardonic and patronizing as the summer wears on and Obama’s poll numbers wilt.

Cardinal Rigali reminds us that the ends don't justify the means. Ever.

There is a great deal of attention being given to current government proposals surrounding health care. While it is not the Church’s intention or desire to enter into politics, when moral principles are at stake it is part of her mission to defend the dignity of the human person. In that spirit, we approach this week’s topic.

Other than pretty much everything that comes out of Robert Gibbs' mouth, this has got to be the most bombastic claim of the week. RS McCain has a humorous take where he deconstructs the propagandist's math:

America's No. 1 problem? A decline in the quality of union goons. Take these United Food and Commercial Workers people trying to boycott Whole Foods because the company's CEO wrote a WSJ op-ed critical of ObamaCare. Matt Welch quotes their propaganda handout:

John Mackey is a right wing libertarian. . . .He has just launched a campaign to defeat a single payer national health insurance system. . . .And the problem with Mackey's campaign is that it results in the deaths of 60 Americans every day due to lack of health insurance.

All of a sudden liberals aren't for dialogue. The Vatican's "investigation" and the reaction of some women religious communities is inspiring some lunacy over at Acts of the Apostasy:

Shortly after the Vatican announced they would be conducting an apostolic visitation of US women religious communities, IHM Sister Sandra Schneiders issued an email (published by the National Catholic Distorter) describing the strategy the communities ought to employ in the face of the investigation:

Remember a few days ago, Patrick prophesied that in order to distract from their disastrous healthcare plan the Democrats would seize on an enemy and destroy them by attempting to ruin them as they did Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Trent Lott, etc...

I hate to see Patrick being right about anything but methinks the Dems have found their target:

This is a blatant intimidation tactic by Waxman and company.

FoxNews: In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation.

Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is "examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry."

Could you imagine how the media would've responded if George W. Bush had told people that God wanted them to pass a bill he supported?

Last week, Vogue complimented Gov. Mark Sanford's wife for talking about God in a way so as to not make people squirm. How comes when Obama brings up God I start to squirm? Powerline has Obama's recent theocratic push for ObamaCare:

Charles Hurt reports in today's New York Post:

Repeatedly invoking the Bible, President Obama yesterday told religious leaders that health-care critics are "bearing false witness" against his plan.

The fire-and-brimstone president declared holy war in a telephone call with thousands of religious leaders around the country as he sought to breathe life into his plan for a system overhaul.

Why does the media seem to believe that the Catholic Church is a democracy:

Newsflash: The media doesn't understand that the Catholic Church is not a democracy, and that the Vatican is not swayed by public opinion.

The proof of this disconnect came from ABC "World News Sunday" anchor Dan Harris and correspondent David Wright during the Aug. 16 "World News" broadcast. Wright's report on American nuns facing an apostolic visitation, labeled by Harris as "a controversial investigation," portrayed the Vatican as a big, bad bully of American nuns.

Reality starlet talks about the anguish and guilt of abortions. Don't think Planned Parenthood will be sending her any Christmas cards. Big Hollywood has more:

This is an amazing story. Not because Kourtney Kardashian, a reality television star, chose not to abort her child, but rather her willingness to candidly discuss the evolution of her thinking as she mulled her “choice.” I’ve emphasized the most powerful parts of her statement; the parts that must sound like nails on a chalkboard to an abortion industry not used to this kind of thing from young, female celebrities:

The song may have been called "Party in the USA," but when Miley Cyrus recently treated her Teen Choice Awards audience to a pole dance atop an ice cream truck, dressed in extremely short shorts, black boots and a bra-revealing tank top, the general impression was that the party was taking place in a strip joint.Mothers of little girls cringed: Who provided the pole? And since when do Miley's backup dancers gyrate like the Pussycat Dolls?Then there is the August issue of Elle, which features America's favorite 16-year-old in a number of contrived poses. In one, she's in black stilettos, with an exposed midriff, striking a backbend-pelvic-thrust combo. On the cover, she's in a leather push-up bustier, her cleavage revealed...Continue reading>>>

Huh. Imagine that. Obama's White House is misleading the public about abortion. Who'd a thunk it?

During this trying time Dear Leader returned today to his faith roots to push Obamacare.

Let's hope he refrained from his "fruitcake distortion" of the Bible during his conference call.The Hill reported:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday tried to retake the upper ground in this month's healthcare debate by casting reform as a "moral conviction" in a conference call with religious leaders.

"The one thing that you all share is a moral conviction," Obama said. "This debate over healthcare goes to the heart of who we are as American people... This is part of an ethical and moral obligation that we look out for one another.

Boycotts have been a useful bullying tool of the left for years. Glad to see Fox News standing up to it because if this were successful it would only serve to embolden the boycotters and silence debate. Legal Insurrection has more:

Ed Morrissey at HotAir has the rundown on the faltering boycott of Glenn Beck's Fox News show. As predicted here, the failure of the boycott has numerous benefits.

What's more, the people pushing this boycott have stepped in it this time. There is no indication that Fox News will give in to the pressure. Fox News understands that this boycott nominally is against Beck, but really is against Fox News.

This is not the first boycott Fox News has broken. Remember when Democratic presidential candidates refused to appear on Fox News or allow Fox News to host a debate? Barack Obama eventually gave an interview to Bill O'Reilly, as McCain-Palin picked up steam.

This is a question that's actually been on my mind. And bam! There's Jill Stanek with the answer:

At least once or twice weekly Nancy Keenan of NARAL had been sending a steady stream of "Keep anti-choice extremism out of health-care reform"-type e-mails, as was her July 28 message entitled - until Aug. 3. Nancy has now gone silent for over 2 weeks.

Same goes for Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, who likewise was transmitting "Anti-choice groups step up attacks on women's health"-type emails, as was the title of her July 22 dispatch - until July 24. Cecile hasn't been heard from in over 3 weeks.

Nat Hentoff is a liberal that I have respect for. Mainly because he's pro-life. But when I read his work it's clear that this is a man who's interested in truth. But after decades of writing (railing>) against administration after administration, Obama's finally managed to scare Nat Hentoff. Check out why:

I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover's FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama's desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive. Watch for that life-decider in the final bill. It's already in the stimulus bill signed into law.

Did you know that the life of an adolescent is more valuable than the life of a baby or an old person? Hey, it's supported by empirical surveys. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Just so there's no confusion, may I repeat what I said the other day: the "death panels" have not been dropped from any of the bills. Rationing boards, such as NICE in the UK, are intrinsic to and inextricable from a public plan. What was dropped by the Senate finance committee was the end-of-life counseling provision, thanks in part to Sarah Palin's "death panel" statement.

I hesitate to link up David L. Alexander since it seems a conflict of interest. Obviously, it seems that David is in the employ of CMR even though we have been remiss in sending him his checks. Anyway, David attempts to clear up any confusion, in his typically acerbic fashion, on what constitutes a blogger or a writer.

Good writing is hard. Good writing actually takes time. Good writing requires the ability to assemble coherent thoughts into a line of thought, thus posing something worth pondering for a larger audience. That audience must be adept at more than clever slogans that fit neatly into 140-character-or-less "tweets." People who can do this can have weblogs and be called a "writer" because they actually... er, uh, WRITE. The guy who does little other than get a lion's share of attention from linking everybody else, is not a writer; he is a "blogger."

The Evans-Novak column ran under the title “the Sonnenfeldt Doctrine.” When I finished reading that early spring day in 1976, I remember thinking, this is quintessential Bob Novak.

State Department Counselor Helmut Sonnenfeldt had told a London gathering of American ambassadors that Soviet domination of Eastern Europe was actually necessary for world peace. In fact, Poland was a good example of the benefits of Soviet control because that had enabled the Poles to overcome their “romantic” political instincts which had led to so many “disasters in their past.”

CBS News reports that the AARP’s dance with ObamaCare has produced real results for the senior advocacy group — really bad results. Over 60,000 members have left the AARP, angered by the group’s support for Barack Obama’s health-care reform efforts and silence on cuts to Medicare that will pay for them. Many have joined a new group with a more conservative outlook on health-care reform:

On Saturday, my long-awaited break finally arrived. Regular readers know that for a couple weeks now I've been desperate for some time to get away from it all to recharge my batteries both spiritually and physically, and that my efforts in that department kept falling through. Just when I felt like I was getting close to some kind of breaking point, my husband arranged for me to get out of the house for a couple hours on Saturday.

I was so excited I was giddy, and I knew exactly where I was going to go: our church's Adoration chapel.

Gob bless the Barrett's in this difficult time. Mary Ellen is a Catholic blogger and columnist and we are praying for her and her family:

Even in this time of intense grief, Mary Ellen has been thinking of others, writing an email to let her friends know more about Ryan's last moments. Although she wrote that I should feel free to share it, her words seemed too personal to post on a blog, and I have been sitting at my computer, unsure of what she would want me to do.

I decided to post a portion of her message because Ryan's story should be told accurately in his mother's own words. As you will see, the poor child never "went missing" or "wandered off," even though, for a long and torturous night, he could not be found.

I've heard of promising a car in every garage and a turkey on the table but never heard of a President promising an abortion provider in every school.

A measure in President Barack Obama's health care plan could allow for special interest groups like Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion services provider, to operate health care clinics, at taxpayer expense, inside America's public schools.

Via Rod Dreher comes Eric Giunta’s article, which is probably going to get a lot of play in the blogosphere, over why he thinks JP II ought not be canonized. Giunta basically concedes that JP II fits the traditional framework for canonization—personal holiness and heroic virtue—but he shifts the goal-posts citing that his papacy was all-in-all a failure:

One or two commented on my post about confession that they suspect their sins are boring. Sin is boring. There is nothing original or creative about sin. Sin is never more than a virtue twisted and deformed. It is unoriginal and dull and repetitive.

When the fantasist tries to come up with another sin all he can do is come up with another deformity of sin, and even then there are not that many permutations.

But what exactly did he do, this ministering angel of a man who restores, magically as it were, the faith of children? This Roman Catholic priest who, loving God more than himself, is thus able—and free!—to love everyone in God? In one word, Kolbe substitutes himself for another. At the eleventh hour, he takes the place of a grieving husband and father whom the SS have randomly chosen, along with nine or so others, to die in a bunker deprived of food and water. Protracted starvation: a horrible way to die.

An unemployed Sarah Palin just beat the White House and had ObamaCare legislation changed. Man, they really must hate her. Gateway Pundit has the tale:

Oh my. What are they going to do with Dear Sarah?She's killing them with her honest analysis of their plan to nationalize health care.

Last night Rahmbo's brother "Dr. Death Panel" Ezekiel Emanuel attacked Sarah Palin on her death panel accusations saying the claims were "outrageous." Later in the day the Senate decided to remove the death panels from Obamacare legislation-- the same provision that Emanuel said was not included in the bill.

This morning Sarah Palin answers Zeke.

""How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed." Ouch!

This looks really bad for the White House. Ace of Spades thought it worthy of their flaming skull:

Gibbys spent a good chunk of today's presser lying about this, by the way. Chuck Todd kept asking if the White House had made specific pledges to PhARMA, and Gibbs kept saying something like "We've only pledged to look for further savings." (Something like that -- don't quote me.)

How is promising not to seek savings in the bulk of the federal drug budget "looking for further savings"?

Daily Danet breaks down the misleading rhetoric of President Obama's townhall:

After two weeks of raucous town hall events, the One descended from on high to deign and touch the common man with his unending wisdom on healthcare. He admonished the unclean masses for their “wild misrepresentations” and proceeded to promise no lines, coverage for every condition, lower costs, free parking, and a unicorn in every garage. But lying, you see, is a sin. And although he has sinned before, repeatedly, he doth rise above us and he may cast stones down upon us.

First, he dismissed even the rowdy protests themselves as being misleading and disproportionate with the real sentiment of his people. The evil insurance companies, you see, are handpicking the crowds. Highly trained, paid actors who only look like your friends, neighbors and family membors. He then went on to impart his wisdom to the completely random, unscreened, not-Democratic operative audience (who only look like people you’ve never seen before in this quiet New Hampshire town) thusly...

CMR fave Kat aka Carolina Cannonball had to go to the hospital with chest pains. The lesson learned is that you don't ignore chest pain. She's home now but if you could work her into your prayers, it would be appreciated.

The heart is the only broken instrument that works...

... first let me start off by thanking every one for their kind emails, phone calls, prayer requests and genuine concern for my well being. I was deeply touched by the out pouring. Thank you all tremendously.

I am recovering at home for the time being and taking it easy the next few days.

Over the past week I had been experiencing chest pains which I dismissed as heart burn. The pain got progressively worse and I continued to ignore it; stupidly. I figured I was too young for any serious heart problems.

Kids hoping to grab a Happy Meal from McDonald's might end up with PETA's Unhappy Meal instead.

The animal rights organization lifted its moratorium on the McCruelty Campaign this year and since June has distributed Chicken McCruelty Unhappy Meals to McDonald's customers outside about a dozen restaurants around the country.

It's 3 a.m., I'm actually pretty darn glad Hillary's not answering the phone. The other day we found out Hillary is unprofessional. Today we find out she's stupid. Hot Air has the video:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared Nigeria’s corruption and electoral problems with the 2000 Florida presidential election recount during a town hall meeting today in Abuja, Nigeria.Answering a question about Nigeria’s recent election, Clinton said, “In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for President was the governor of the state. So we have our problems too.”

Public Christianity may be punishable with jail time now. I kind of knew we were getting there. It's just a bit quicker than I thought. Stop the ACLU has the whole sad and scary story:

Under the banner of protecting the first Amendment, the ACLU once again shows how to rip it apart and maintain their status as America’s number one religious censor. If only these individuals were Muslim, the schools would have been encouraged by the ACLU to accomodate for their sensitive religious needs, but alas they were Christian and therefore have no freedom of religion in the eyes of the ACLU.

A principal and an athletic director are facing criminal charges for a lunch-time prayer.

Is Catholic Charities USA....er...fibbing? Diogenes has the answer. And it's not a good one:

In response to inaccurate online media reports, Catholic Charities USA states unequivocally that it does not support any plan to reform health care and/or any proposed legislative provision that allows or promotes the funding of abortions or that compels any health care provider or institution to provide such a service.

That statement from Catholic Charities USA is admirably clear, isn't it? Kinda makes you wonder how folks could possibly have contrived those "inaccurate online media reports," doesn't it? And let the record show that your Uncle Di wasn't involved in this perfidy.

This is perfect hypocrisy. A Dem representative is demanding valid photo ID in order to attend his townhall meeting but he voted against presenting valid photo ID in order to vote. Gotta' love it:

This is Congressman Eugene Green (HT to an e-mailer), Democrat from Texas, telling the world that if you're not from his District, you're not welcome at his future town hall meetings -- oh, and how he'll enforce his new rule (bold is his):

From yesterday's New York Times:A new study of Roman Catholic nuns and priests in the United States shows that an aging, predominantly white generation is being succeeded by a smaller group of more racially and ethnically diverse recruits who are attracted to the religious orders that practice traditional prayer rituals and wear habits.

Troglopundit read David Frum so we didn't have to. Frum, more than most writers personifies the part of the right wing that absolutely hate you because you believe in God and protecting life and all that other ickey stuff.

David Frum asks the question: What if we win the healthcare fight?

I counter with this: is David Frum one of those moderate, wanna-be-liked-more-than-anything kinds of conservatives? Because I’m thinking he is.

Is it just me or does he sound desperate? Rush Limbaugh said Obama sounded like a kid running for high school class president. His Post Office allusion made little sense. Breitbart has lots of clips, including Obama lying about never supporting a single-payer system. Sigh. His answer to the girl who asked about "mean signs" and "how can a kid know what's true" included an extended (6 or 7 seconds) smirk about "those signs." Then he went on to dismiss the idea that a healthcare bill would include "death panels" to determine who is worthy of treatment:

Remember that DHS report that said pro-lifers and right wingers must be watched. Well what was that report based on? The answer is worrisome. Jill Stanek has the story:

I reported in March that the Department of Homeland Security had placed "anti-abortion activists" along with war veterans, those opposed to illegal immigration, and more on a "rightwing extremist" domestic terrorist watch list, per a leaked report.

In April, Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information request to find the source(s) of DHS's information.

Today ALG released the DHS's response, and it's remarkable.

Forget the FBI or CIA or other intelligence sources we don't even know about. The Department of HOMELAND SECURITY got its information from the media - including far left media like the Huffington Post, MSNBC, and CNN - websites, and blogs. Here's a sampling from the DHS response letter (click to enlage):

Senator Claire McCaskill is a lawyer and the first rule of lawyerin' is you don't ask a question you don't know the answer to. Looks like she forgot that rule. Gateway Pundit has the short but hilarious video:

Barack Obama's pal Claire "ACORN" McCaskill held a town hall meeting today in Hillsboro, Missouri.At one point she started lecturing the crowd and asked, "You don't trust me?"The crowd gave her an overwhelming response..... "No!"

Bonnie Erbe of US News and World Report clearly hates two things in the world; Sarah Palin and religion. And she tells us every chance she gets. Newsbusters has more:

Religiosity can “cloud” one’s thinking and human beings on life support are the “living dead,” according to Bonnie Erbe, contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report. Her August 11 blog post, “Sarah Palin's Lies About Obamacare Are Based on Religion,” attempted to rebut former Governor Sarah Palin’s controversial remarks about health care, and ended up insulting people of faith.

Thanks to Michelle for pointing out Mary’s appearance in the news last week:

Dr. Aldofo Orozco, a physicist and researcher, announced at the International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe that there is “no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation”:

But what is really interesting is the partisan breakdown. Most Democrats, 62 percent, do want single payer. That explains why, when Democrats are among friends like Barack Obama addressing an SEIU group, they aren't shy about their intention that the "government option" evolve into the only option.

I saw the wire reports about this earlier and rolled my eyes at the suggestion that she’d gotten truly angry, figuring the media was overplaying it to goose the “Bill’s marginalizing Hillary!” narrative after his North Korea trip. Then I watched the video. Dude.

What is Christian Humanism? Pope Benedict has the answer at Via Media:

The Pope explores it today, via the saints:

Recalling some saints whose memory is celebrated in the weeks to come, Benedict XVI affirmed that they are witness to a "Christian humanism" that differs deeply from an "atheistic humanism".

The Saints - the pope cited in particular the martyrs Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein - are indeed witnesses of "an antithesis which spans history, but at the end of the second millennium, with the contemporary nihilism, we have come to a crucial point, as major writers and thinkers have perceived, and as events have amply demonstrated. "

I'd love to see the calculations on this. How did she come up with this number?

Are you opposed to ObamaCare? Willing to attend a town hall to express your disapproval? Odds are good you're a racist. Just ask Cynthia Tucker . . .

As Clay Waters has noted, Paul Krugman alleges that racist motives are at the heart of the town hall protests against ObamaCare. On this evening's Hardball, Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was willing to get specific, estimating that "45 to 65%" of the protesters are motivated by racism.

Politicians are usually known for kissing babies. But not R. Creigh Deeds. The Democrat candidate for Virginia governor is attacking Republican Bob McDonnell’s pro-life views in a desperate attempt to woo female voters and excite his liberal base. Tomorrow he will rally with NARAL to promote his pro-abortion position.

Deeds previewed his attack for the Washington Post, telling the newspaper, “I think it’s an area that shows a clear distinction between us.”

Boy am I glad there are guys like William Jacobson blogging out there because posts like these shame the entire mainstream media establishment with it's right-on-ness (yup. A new word!) and it's countering of conventional wisdom:

Sarah Palin has kicked off (another) firestorm of criticism because of the statement she released on her Facebook page:

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

The incoming fire has been withering, as usual. Palin is accused of becoming the "Zombie Queen," certifiably insane, "clinically wrong," and espousing a "gruesome mix of camp and high farce."

I've often wondered how abortionists sleep at night. I mean, how do they convince themselves that what they do is O.K? Well this explains it. To Dr. Warren Hern, the infamous late term abortionist, he sees all of mankind as tumors.

Dr. Warren Hern, one of the last abortionists willing to perform very late-term abortions in the United States, has written published works describing man as a "malignant eco-tumor" destroying the earth.

Esquire magazine reports in a story entitled "the Last Abortion Doctor," that Hern, the director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic since 1975, argued in a work called Urban Malignancy: Similarity in the Fractal Dimensions of Urban Morphology and Malignant Neoplasms that growing human populations act like a "malignant ecotumor."

LifeSiteNews.com found a 2008 edition of Hern's article published in the International Journal of Anthropology . While the term "eco-tumor" does not appear in this version as quoted by Esquire, it may have come from an earlier version of Hern's paper that was presented at the 16th International Seminar on Urban Form in Brazil on August, 29 2007.

"From the point of view of a physician, the expanding, invasive, colonizing urban form with highly irregular borders resembles a malignant lesion," wrote Hern.

The Kansas City Star ran a really beautiful story on the front page today about a local 12-year old Catholic school girl, excerpts:

. . . family game night. They were playing “Life” when Julie, nauseated, went to her room to lie down. Her family heard a thump, then Julie tumbled down the stairs. They rushed her to the hospital.Doctors listened to her heart, checked lab results, asked questions. They told her parents the news: Their daughter’s heart and lungs were shutting down. They couldn’t be fixed. She had maybe two weeks.

Doctors discover they can slow the disease a bit but can't cure it. Julie's school mates at St. Agnes in Roeland Park, KS raise $12,000 to send the whole family to Lourdes.

I've written tons on ObamaCare. But Sarah Palin nails it perfectly on her Facebook page when she calls out Obama's plan as starting "death panels" which will decide who gets care and who gets death. Read the whole thing at Conservatives4Palin:

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Sometimes the issue of "separation of church and state" get a bit confused in today's world. While there no such phrase in our Constitution, one interpretation of it can be an accurate description of one intent of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: the federal government may not establish a national religion. There are some who think that is the extent of the meaning, which I have spoken about many times on this venue.

Despite such confusion, some of the cases that come before courts are still baffling, especially in view of fairly clear guidance from recent Supreme Court decisions. Just last year a court instructed the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to stop discriminating against the Roman Catholic Federation.

Maybe Castro admirer Michael Moore can send a day's worth of his supply down for his buds. That'll cover them for a month.Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said on Friday.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.

Gen X nostalgia is as interesting for what it remembers as for what it chooses to ignore. Every so often, you'll turn on TBS and be forced to take inventory of the popular culture of your youth. Trading Places delivered its comeuppance with a switcheroo act of commodities fraud;* the true nemesis of Ghost Busters wasn't Gozer but the EPA; Stripes is all about making a kind of screwball peace with the military-industrial complex …

Sure enough, there's Harold Ramis—another Lampoon alum, who directed Hughes' screenplay for Vacation—reflecting on the Chicago Seven hearings in a recent interview with the Believer: "They ran up and down the street, smashing car windows and stuff. My first reaction was, 'Yeah, right on!' But then I thought, 'Wait, I'm parked out there.'"

Pro Ecclesia asks what should be more important than protecting our troops. Well, I guess it depends on who you ask:

It looks like Georgia will once again be ground zero in a battle over whether jobs take priority over efforts to keep U.S. citizens out of harm's way.

Back in 2002, a U.S. Senator from Georgia lost his Senate seat because he placed union interests ahead of national security interests in his votes on the formation of the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Now, another U.S. Senator from Georgia is working to ensure the safety of U.S. combat troops by extending a temporary importation agreement that would allow a fire-resistant rayon from Austria to continue to be used in the production of military uniforms (currently manufactured in Georgia).

A few months ago I witnessed a little miracle: an Anglican friend of mine was received into the Church. It was a miracle because this particular friend had been adamant that he would not become a “Roman”, despite his love of traditional Catholic liturgy. There were many factors in his change of heart, but two words explain why he suddenly took the plunge: Pope Benedict.

At the centre of my friend’s Christianity is public worship, and (so far as I can judge from many conversations with him) the main reason he did not leave the Church of England is that he could not accept the claims of a Church which did not get its worship right. His objection was not to Vatican II, but to a casual approach to the celebration of Mass that made it harder to believe in the unique universal status of the Roman Church.

Where are you politically these days? I became a registered Republican about five or six years ago because to have a successful democracy you have to have at least two parties, and one of them was failing miserably. We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition.

This aired last night but it’s a nice complement to today’s WaPo navel-gazer about the Obama Joker poster. In both cases, you’ve got “progressives” seeing the racial subtext they’re desperate to see in the cultural inkblot; what makes this different is that Parker relies on her own southern pedigree to tacitly claim a little extra authority when pronouncing upon What Southerners Believe. Result: One of the most bigoted segments I’ve ever seen on a news chat show, and I say that as someone who’s not known for being a great fan of either Sarahcuda or the south.

Planned Parenthood is like the Philip Morris of abortion. What a great quote. Romish Graffiti has more:

Jeff Miller’s entry here remarks that giving money to Planned Parenthood to reduce abortions is like giving money to the KKK to reduce racism. Also, when someone burped up the usual PP-does-more-than-just-abortion canard, commentor joanne doesn’t miss a beat:

Planned Parenthood “educates” the public, including young people, in the contraceptive lifestyle, provides/sells the contraceptives, receives funding to do so, AND solves the problems of contraceptive “failure” and pregnancy from their comprehensive sex ed by offering/selling abortions. As my daughter said when she was 14, “Planned Parenthood is like the Philip Morris of abortion.”

‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away, while we are mindlessly repeating the catchwords of the hour, whether “change,” “universal health care,” or “social justice.”

If we can be so easily stampeded by rhetoric that neither the public nor Congress bothers to read (much less analyze) bills that make massive changes in medical care, then do not be surprised when life-and-death decisions about you or your family are taken out of your hands — and out of the hands of your doctor — and transferred to bureaucrats in Washington.

Semantics are the spirit of the age. We do evil in the name of good and just put new names on it. Fr. Dwight Longenecker nails it:

You can always tell when the devil's at work because he uses idealistic lies. He uses catch phrases and slogans, and you know they're lies by looking at the results. One of the most famous modern lies is 'feminism' which encourages women to be more masculine. Another word is 'gay'. Take a look at the homosexualist sub-culture and it's anything but happy and carefree and innocent.

One of the more subtle lies is the word 'inclusive'. The Episcopal and Lutheran churches have, this summer, voted to allow practising homosexuals into the clergy and to endorse same sex 'weddings'. This was done in the name of 'inclusivity'.

Years and years of public apathy have given Congress the belief that they can do whatever they want. We have to prove them wrong. Pundette has more:

Our representatives are supposed to respect the will of the people rather than force their own will on us. It's all about consent. When consent is lacking, representative government turns into something else. Please read The Date Rape of America from the Liberty Belle, in which her metaphor hits the bullseye with a resounding twang. Kindly click on that and then come back here. Thank you.

When it comes to Obama's agenda, Congress knows we really want it and refuses to listen to the word "NO!" The louder we say it, the more hostile and forceful they become. Our past passive complicity has set the stage for this assault.

Bloogers beware. You might be reported. I'm telling you now that if David L. goes missing I'm turning my brother Patrick in and moving to Venezuela where I can be free of all this meddling government:

I attended Catholic grade school throughout the 1960s. I saw a lot of changes just during those eight years. But during the early ones, we were consistently taught about the evils of Communism, and of how our Faith and the Marxist philosophy were incompatible. We listened as the good nuns told us of priests tortured and killed in socialist regimes. But they also told us of how children would be taught in schools, to report their parents to the authorities if they found them engaging in questionable activities. Snitching on your mom and dad, the two people who gave you birth, who nursed you and fed you and cleaned up your messes and all that. Can you imagine?

A Fate Worse Than Death? Red Cardigan reports on being sent to live with Nuns!

I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be smiling. But I can't help but wonder: is "Sent to live with the nuns" the Catholic threat equivalent of "Sent to sleep with the fishes?" I can't help but imagine the poor hapless priest or deacon or parish worker being told to see some unnamed chancery official and having a conversation like this entirely completely fictional one take place:

In the health care reform debate, we often hear about how huge amounts of money that could be going to provide people with treatement is being sucked up by insurance company profits instead. This kind of thing always makes me wonder, since in my experience a competitive market place will usually drive profit margins down pretty low. So I thought it would be illustrative to look up how much money the top private insurance companies make, and then determine their profit margins and profits per enrollee.

Earworms destroying ObamaCare. Sounds like a monster movie. Maybe something starring Fred Ward and/or Matt Frewer or better yet Bruce freakin' Campbell. But the question William Jacobson is whether word of mouth on the government takeover of healthcare is bypassing the media's deathgrip leak of biased information:

Why would anyone be against government-run health care? It makes no sense to those pushing a public option, and the ultimate goal of a single-payer system. Government is good, insurance companies are bad. Repeat ad naseum, government good, insurance companies bad.

Digby at Hullabaloo noticed this phenomenon. You see, she was getting her hair cut the other day in liberal West L.A., and was shocked to discover that the people who work there are afraid of government-run health care:

Everyone in the place was complaining about the insurance companies and how broken the system was. But they were also convinced that the Democrats are trying to pass socialized medicine. When I asked what they thought that meant, they said, "government takeover of health care." And they were seriously worried about how that was going to affect them.

Don't say you're shocked by this because you just can't be. Life is a right that must be measured by a cost-benefit analysis. Hot Air has the video and the story. Check it out.:

We knew it would come to this when Oregon insisted on passing its assisted-suicide laws. It doesn’t take much for assisted suicide to go from a humane option to a cost-saving device, especially when the state pays for the medical care. One patient in Oregon got a letter that made this all too clear, when in the same letter rejecting her request for life-extending chemotherapy, Oregon offered her “physician-aid-in-dying”. In other words, Oregon offered their customer a heapin’ helping of death:

A sad ending. But an ending. Say a few prayers for the family and the man:

The remains of Navy Captain Scott Speicher, a pilot who has been missing since being shot down during the 1991 Gulf War, have been positively identified. The Pentagon has released a statement:

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) has positively identified remains recovered in Iraq as those of Captain Michael Scott Speicher. Captain Speicher was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over west-central Iraq on January 17th, 1991 during Operation Desert Storm.

The short life of a devout, Catholic, young girl from Seattle has brought many Catholics across the United States back to the Church. Her holy and loving example, as well as her battle with cancer, has drawn others to convert to Catholicism and has inspired the creation of an organization to reach out to families with a loved one facing a chronic illness.

Gloria was born in 1996 to Doug and Kristen Strauss and was like any other seven-year old. She enjoyed playing with her six siblings and friends, dressing up, playing board games, picking flowers and watching the Fox television show, “American Idol.” The young girl also had a special place in her heart for the Rosary and for making people feel good about themselves. However, no one could have predicted the amount of people her brief time on earth would touch...

To be conservative is to be betrayed on a regular basis. You send your kids to a school that tries to slyly indoctrinate them into liberalism, you come home to watch an “unbiased” news show that covers almost every story differently based on whether a Republican or Democrat is involved, and then you try to unwind by watching TV shows that take guarded shots at the values you cherish.

Eventually, election time rolls around and you get two candidates, a Republican and a Democrat, both of whom claim that they want to slash the deficit, oppose gay marriage, and are dead serious about securing the border. Then, when they start governing, you find that the liberals are always lying — but even the Republicans turn out to be fudging on what they believe as often as not. Sun Tzu once said that “all war is deception,” but as far as conservatives are concerned, the same could be said of politics and the media.